New ways of choosing projects to work on next - brainstorming

Hello guys
I've come across an issue that the LTI already started dealing with. That's the issue of not/knowing which video (or text) to choose next to work on.
I want to quote excerpts of lizardman's post on another thread:

Quoted

What I tried to say is that we are trying to move away from "I think".
Less making of decisions, more arriving at them. For this to happen, we
need to develop a system that allows for an analysis of a material, to
try to gauge how relevant it is to our overall goals. Maybe you missed
this point and still continue to think about how good you personally
feel something is. And something being short doesn't make it
automatically eligible - there are hundreds of short TVP videos out there.

All of the above doesn't mean that this video is not good or worthy, or
that it won't be taken in for translation. It just means that we can't
continue to rely on the opinion system.

and

Quoted

the system I mentioned, that allows for more arriving at decisions, is
not developed yet (and now with the Portal and PMS being prepared, there
isn't time to work also on that). So 'arriving at decisions' can't
really be applied. But there is huge demand for bringing this in for
translation (big pressure). What can be done in this case? Have a
suggestion? Suggestions are always helpful. They have the potential to help improve the system.

Hi, Marina & Yayita, and everyone
How wonderful to see that the question of 'what system would most scientifically help us arrive at a priority for choosing projects' is an important concern for you and others in LTI! It has surely been an important topic in Admin Mtgs, and with the new portal launch, we are addressing this concern, as well. We've been working on methods & tools which will be eventually opened up for suggestions and input at a future time.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for recognizing the importance of a Priority System and for any brain-storming suggestions that come from this thread. I also wanted to assure you that this important topic is being addressed. I look forward to hearing the brain-storming ideas.

Love & hugs ,
Di

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1) We must define what is the mid-term goal here. If this is not done, then everything has no meaning. For example if our goal is to be a "tool" for other translation teams and/or chapters then we should focus what they want/need.
For example, (and this is well done by the team) the Culture in Decline Series take precedence before others, not because it has more useful content but just because it's "hot" at these days. If the transcription/timestamp would not be ready in a week or so from the online airing of each episode, the enthusiasm of translators will drop and fewer translations will take place. On the other hand, if our goal is to create more useful material(to whom?) for activism we may consider pushing for something bigger, like books that we "promote" and have no copyright issues etc. An example would behttp://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/sands.htm

2) As the level of understanding goes up, so does the demand for more in depth analysis. This leads to the request for more exotic projects from a personal perspective. This must be "contained" (sorry for the word) to either be a personal project or a project for the future, depending on how it fits to the current goal.

If the issue 1 is not addressed (if not already done so) then the discussion has no further meaning because anyone could make an hypothesis on the claim and based on that claim he/she can choose the best appropriate project to work on. If we do not share the same goal then we could not share and the outcome of our decisions however "scientific" they can be.
I used the term mid-term because the long-term goal of the team springs out from the TZM goal which is very rigorously defined.
The mid-term however (the transition phases if you will) is not defined and it's up to each team (including LTI) to decide/arrive at a decision what is the best path to take.
And of course there are factors beyond our "powers" that we will take into account if they happened. For example, assuming a nuclear war is commencing tomorrow. Can we stay at the path that we decided as a mid-term goal? Of course not. This must be defined all over again. We could consider translating videos about nuclear power and their destructive consequences to the human being etc

These are the first brainstorming ideas that came to mind. Hope that they are helpful.